This is a nice one. ;)

It's all sorry . . .

Do you ever feel like you're always saying sorry?

• to the cashier: sorry my WIC rang up wrong and now you have to get your manager


• sorry it's confusing to use WIC even though i loaded it on all organized


• sorry you're behind us in line


• sorry my cart's so big and it's blocking your tiny load


• (about 10 minutes earlier) sorry you're hungry/tired/bored/under-age-5 and at the store right now in the a.m./p.m.--is there a magic "good" time


• sorry we have to go get something from this aisle and . . . that aisle before we can see the catfish


• sorry i picked some produce thing that you don't know how to ring up


• sorry my kids are yelping


• sorry i'm accidentally in the express lane with 976 gallons of juice and milk


• sorry your sister hit you


• sorry you can't touch those buttons


• sorry you can't have that


• sorry you can't touch those buttons


• to the cashier: sorry, thanks, sorry . . . thanks


• [brief, sunny, cheerful quiet respite as we walk the cart to the car. tell the kids i love them and feel happy]


• sorry i have all my doors open. i'm trying to: convince two kids to get in and sit down, manually unlock all doors, buckle seven buckles, load a cart of groceries onto my front seat (the stroller's in the trunk--more about that to come) by lifting them over the open back door, keep kids from getting run over AND find their toys/water cups, push cart out of way and make sure everybody is actually buckled


• sorry you parked right next to me and have one small bag and a fast car and are able to go from unlock to pulling away in .53 seconds and you got here when i was just opening my car doors.


• sorry i'm blogging and not: making you lunch, reading to you, taking you PEE!

well, i did do the last one and now i'm back, and really it's a pretty good "sorry" day ;)

Better fly Butterfly!

Notice the red lepidoptera on his arm and his cute sunlit profile.


Here's Alli's trademark " Oh--oooOOooo. ooo." We all felt that way seeing butterflies come out of their chrysalisisisises (some were metallic gold!) and looking at thousands of tropical butterflies. Some were brown on the outside (see below) and electric blue inside (Who comes up with this??--what a great idea!!!)
Mark was sure that if he wore his most fluorescent shirt he'd be irresistible. And sure enough, he got this passenger as soon as he walked through the door. It's mad skills like this that make me love this guy!

Having my birthday on the first day of Spring has always pleased me. This year my mom joined us in good ol' Houston and took us to the Butterfly Tower--which is nearly as Spring-y as you can get. What a YAY day!

Lest you think it was all romantic . . .

Allianna gave this orange butterfly a very deliberate stomp seconds after these shots. She has great aim and felt no remorse . . . we'll have to work on that.

Must come from our Zero-Tolerance for Arthropods policy at home. And so one butterfly perished because the innocent saw hundreds of cockroaches pummeled with authority.

Oh, you can still come visit us . . . we don't ever have hundreds of cockroaches at a time.

Clover all over

I'm listening to "John Denver radio" on Pandora right now--oh geez!

the charge of the whitey-tighty brigade

This was Alli's idea, with Grandma facilitating.
It's hard to give these pictures captions, but i think her future looks bright. that's my kind of girl!

Flowers everywhere . . .

After 5 years of marriage and 8 years of acquaintance i find out that mark surpasses me in hippiness because he can make clover jewelry (he's got a good mom who taught him). he and alli adore each other. this was while i was picking my mom up from the airport.

Papa Nolte reading some Disney magic . . .

Fiber's good . . .

So i thought i would do something really radical and put toilet paper on the holders in our bathrooms, after a three year hiatus. i was getting ready for family to come visit. And even though i did it while alli was asleep, within 20 minutes of tp being reinstalled Alli was feasting on the bounty.

"Here Mom, have some. It's soooo yummy!"

"Wouldn't you like to feel this happy?" that's what this face says to me.

Wanna have Sunday Dinner with us?

So I thought it might be fun to have Sunday dinner together. Though we can't eat at the same place, we can eat the same thing. To start us off is the following recipe. It has lots of things that kids can pick from (I never know from day to day what mine are going to want, beyond cheese). Mark wasn't sure he'd like it, from the name, but when he tried it he really loved it--so give it a try! We were able to have a dinner and two lunch servings--it gets big, so plan accordingly depending on your group. Hope the recipe isn't too hard to read--this was the best I could get my computer to do . . . Oh, and Bon Appetite!




Barbecue Chicken Chop Salad (from my Boise ward cookbook)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts [I used a 1 lb pkg of ground chicken, which saved me prep time and chopping and decontaminating, but has a different presentation. I just cooked it with the bbq sauce in a skillet]
1 cup barbecue sauce [we like Sweet Baby Ray’s a lot (wow!) but I don’t know if it’s a national brand]
½ head iceberg lettuce, chopped
½ head romaine lettuce, chopped [you could easily increase this amount w/out overpowering the other ingredients]
3 to 4 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 jicama, peeled and diced [ a light brown root with a sweet taste and crunch. Try to get one about onion size or you might have extra jicama left in the bowl after everything else’s been eaten]
½ c cilantro, chopped [Mark and I never liked cilantro until about 4 months ago and now we can’t get enough—something in the TX air. ]
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 c. sweet corn
½ lb. Monterey Jack cheese, grated
Corn tortilla chips, for serving
Ranch dressing

Marinate chicken in bbq sauce, then bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Chop into pieces and refrigerate.
Combine chicken in a large salad bowl with salad ingredients and toss. Serve with Ranch dressing or dressing of your choice. Drizzle bbq sauce over serving and crispy corn tortilla chips.

Orca crossing.

Mark managed to get home by 5pm on Friday and celebrated by drawing the kids a massive killer whale. He thought it might bring joy to all the passersby, too. This is just outside our house taken from the neighbors' balcony.

Let's go fly a Simon!

For our grand finale at the Houston Rodeo we let Simon have one carnival ride. Okay, I liked it a lot too--and I tried to crank us around as fast as I could, to Mark's chagrin. Mark's stomach is a roller coaster guy; Simon's and mine are twirlers. I was pretty glad Simon didn't decide he "absolutely would not go" on the ride after we were already locked in. He's been pretty good at absolutes lately--but he's still my bud. Also, thanks go out to Mark for springing for a funnel cake. ;)

Texas sized Rhoooo-D-eooo!

Our little paisley country gal! Yes, that's a wallaby rump to Simon's left . . .
You think he likes these tractors pretty well? He hadn't seen the "pickup truck display" yet; he was so agog over their shiny paint and big wheels and horsepower and general dreaminess that we had to wonder about the whole nature/nurture thing and who's raising him--his parents or Texas! I wished I still had my thrift store Snap-on belt buckle and oldman cowboy shirts from high school.
A nod to our blog's name.
Um, Simon, that's hot?
It doesn't get more delightful than pigs racing for oreos. Man, I think these kids are cute!

Walking together and making me nostalgic

I can count on Simon to hold Alli's hand when my hands are full and she's a lot more willing to hold his hand than mine if we're trying to change her course. Plus, they just look so cute--we almost have tourists stopping to take pictures of them. ;)

Alli's figured out how to bless her food

And she blesses everything. She folds her arms for every handful of goldfish at snacktime. She walks around just folding her arms because she likes that she's figured it out.

A Dish we're Digging lately!

Baked Macaroni and Cheese (America’s Test Kitchen)

Serves 6-8
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes (includes 25 minutes baking time)

Although the classic pasta shape for this dish is elbow macaroni, any small, curvaceous pasta will work. Do not use lowfat or skim milk, as neither is rich enough to make a creamy sauce. Low sodium vegetable broth can be substituted to make this dish vegetarian.

8 T unsalted butter (1 stick)
2 c fresh bread crumbs (2-3 pieces in food processor)
1 lb elbow macaroni [I use caravatti or something similarly named]
1 garlic clove, minced
1 t dry mustard, dissolved in 1 t water
¼ t cayenne pepper [I use a few dashes of Tabasco or some chili powder]
6 T all-purpose flour
3 ½ c whole milk
1 ¾ c low-sodium chicken broth [basically a 14oz can, I’ve found]
1 lb Colby cheese, shredded (4 c)
8 oz extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (2 c)

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt 2 T of the butter and toss with the breadcrumbs.

2. Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot for the macaroni. Stir in 1 T salt and the macaroni and cook until almost tender but still firm to the bite. Drain the macaroni and leave it in the colander.

3. Wipe the pot dry [I think the water just steams off on the hot burner, personally], add the remaining 6 T butter, and melt over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, mustard mixture, and cayenne. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

4. Stir in the flour and cook until golden, about 1 minute. Slowly wisk in the milk and broth. Bring to a simmer. Cook, whisking often, until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 6 minutes.

5. Off the heat, whisk in the Colby and cheddar until completely melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the drained macaroni, breaking up any clumps, until well combined [I put a little less than half of the noodles in (because my saucepot can’t hold more) and the rest in the 9x13 and it works and seems easier to dump]

6. Pour into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with the breadcrumbs. Bake until golden brown and bubbling around the edges, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.


To Make ahead
Assemble through step 6, except don’t put on breadcrumbs or bake. Store in the fridge, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 3 days before serving. The casserole can also be frozen, wrapped in an additional layer of foil, for up to 2 months. Allow to sit at room temp for 1 hour before baking. (If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator for at least 24 hrs before letting it sit at room temp.)

Mugshot of Simon

in response to requests for a good close-up of the Simon.

Simon got a haircut

I was getting tempted to use Alli's hair things in his hair, so I figured it was about time. Oh, and hi from Doc, of course.

Allianna is walking!

She was caught trying to spin around in circles like her brother this morning. She's been walking across rooms all week. i have a feeling her bipedalism is going to take off with a bang. she gets this look in her eyes like "self, i challenge you to go all the way across this room to that couch without putting your hands down" and she trembles when she has to go from carpet to tile. But she's fast!--she gets nearly running and flops on her belly laughing. Simon has been asking for months when Alli would be "a grurl who can walk like a kid." He's nearly more proud than us!

Joined the blogging revolution!

Everybody's blogging here in Houston, and after getting the Christmas cards it seems my friends from back home are too. I've decided to start putting some of our life and times up here--because, hey, we have a good life!